Corries Tartan Ladies Shawl

 

Ladies shawl woven in pure new wool on the Hebridean Isle of Islay

 Measures approx 50cm x 164cm

The Corries are undoubtedly most famous for the song "Flower of Scotland". The song was written by Roy Williamson in 1967 and its first showing to the public was in a BBC Corries' filmed television series, recorded in black and white, with Roy playing the bouzouki and Ronnie Brown the bodhran in front of Ruthven Barracks in the north of Scotland. The song was given a somewhat archaic treatment, perhaps to make a new song sound a bit more ancient, but the arrangement underwent a few changes during the following years, when the Corries' large concert audiences seemed to take to it like ducks to water.

In 1974, Billy Steele, the then Scottish rugby international winger and in that year member of the British Lions,  took the song with him on their famous, victorious tour of South Africa. It would appear that he had persuaded people like Gordon "Broon Fae Troon" Brown to sing it with him and they, and the other Scots in the party were joined, perhaps surprisingly, by their Irish, Welsh and even English team mates. Upon their return they were voted the BBC Television Team of the Year and sang "Flower of Scotland" on national television as their team song.

At the beginning of the 1990 international season there was a request from the Scottish national rugby squad, through the Scottish Rugby Union, for the song to be sung as the unofficial anthem before the start of the games of the 5 Nations tournament of that year. In the first game against France, it proved very popular and Scotland went on to win that momentus 1990 Grand Slam. Roy, a fervent rugby man himself, lived long enough to experience intense pride before he finally died in August 1990 from the ravages of cancer, brought on from a malignant brain tumour.

Since Roy's death Ronnie Brown has continued to work on his own and had the honour to lead the fans in the singing of the anthem all over the world. The sports of rugby, boxing and curling have been using it to herald their endeavours and on August 31st, 1996, Ronnie sang it officially for the first time for the Scottish Football Association in Vienna before Scotland's World Cup qualifying match against Austria. Judging by the way the fans sang it at Wembley versus England in 1999, it is certain the song is here to stay.

This year sees the 40th Anniversary of the writing of "Flower of Scotland", our national anthem, and the Corries' Tartan has been designed to mark that occasion. Well done Roy Williamson.

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